Long-listed for the 2009 ReLit Award
Because business is slow for retired homicide detective Campbell Young’s new enterprise, A-1 Investigative Consultants, he decides to take a break a horse-playing vacation to Florida. No sooner are his plans made, however, than his old friend Priam Harvey approaches him with a complex problem: a young Caribbean jazz musician has been found dead in a Toronto hotel room, his body surrounded by the paraphernalia of voodoo. Harvey, whose connection to the victim is revealed to be more than casual, persuades Young to put aside his Racing Form and pick up the trail of the killer.
Young’s pursuit takes him all the way from the nightclubs of New York to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and the backwater bars of Grand Bahama Island before the possibility presents itself that the murderer might actually be right in his own backyard.
This is book #3 of the Campbell Young Mystery series. Book #2 is Bright’s Kill (Dundurn, 2005), and book #1 is The Devil in Me (McClelland & Stewart, 2001)

J.D. Carpenter's first Campbell Young novel, The Devil in Me, was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award and appeared on the Globe & Mail's bestseller list. "With interesting characters, sharp dialogue, superb pacing, and plenty of thrills," wrote Peter Robinson, "this exciting first novel succeeds in whetting the appetite for more." Carpenter lives in Prince Edward County and is currently working on the third Campbell Young book.

J.D. Carpenter's profile page

• Long-listed, ReLit Award

The writing is entertaining, the dialogue makes you feel like you're in the bar eavesdropping." "It is straight-ahead storytelling that reflects the reality of a lonely man's retirement and is told with insight and compassion.

The Hamilton Spectator

Complexity piles upon complexity again.

Star Phoenix